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| Ever since our teacher showed us a picture of bioluminescent mushroom I was in it for too long now. Such a magnificent creature! |
As all of you know fungi is
caught between Kingdom Animalia and Kingdom Plantae, the main reason? These
creatures have cell wall but made of chitin instead of plant’s cellulose and
are heterotrophic. So that’s why taxonomist placed them in a different Kingdom
of their own. Originally Fungi were placed under Kingdom Plantae but eventually
with the birth of molecular biology taxonomist discovered that fungi are kinda
more of an animal that a plant. Fungi can come in great diversity. They can be
unicellular or multicellular, filamentous or in colonies, microscopic or
macroscopic. The most famous fungi are the mushrooms, penicillin, yeast and
puffballs.
With that the Ateneo Biological
Society has conducted a one day seminar and field work on fungi with BS Biology
students of all year level as its participants. This event happened last
February 28, 2014. I’m a bit late posting this one due to my crazy schedule,
but the activity was worth to post with anyway.
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| This is one of the reason why we need to wake up and see that nature doesn't cope up with our everyday activities. The continues drying up of rivers such as these will affect every organism. We should start changing how we live our lives. Remember the five questions of environmental ethics. 1) Who? 2) When? 3) Where? 4) Why? 5) How? |
For the whole morning our group
trekked the Canacutan Outpost until we reached a certain height. From then we
spread and only took pictures of every fungi we came a crossed. During the
afternoon session, Mr. Anthony Buaya, a mycologist, gave lectures on characterizing
and calculating diversity based on the pictures we have collected.
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| Pjey Fidel. Thesis partner. Well this is a river after a very very long period of no precipitation. I think the time when we got this picture we never realized that it hasn't rain for like months until the ZCWD has announced a rationed water supply. |
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From Left: Frances Alexandra Ballos, Jayvalikka Garcia, Pjey Fidel, Joyce Cedrine R Jaugar. The 'amazing' people I got to hang out with. If you ever hang out with either of them prefer your brains guys!!
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Up close. After 12 minute hike and 2 hours of searching fungi, we are unwinding in this dries up river at Pasonanca Outpost.
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| With my team. From left Angeline Villareal, Me and Mark Talaboc. We came from different levels. Me being the junior, Angeline, sophomore and Mark, freshman. It was nice to share some knowledge to them. I feel like I an old lady giving lectures of life. |
Sadly, I didn't have any good shoots of the mushrooms and fungi we found because the camera our team brought was low tech.
The whole event was exciting but
it was somehow rushed. It was understandable since the school is strict with
our security. But honestly I hoped the activity lasted for about 2-3 days for
us or at least for others to truly appreciate ‘biology’. I mean the activity
was something a BS Biology student like me wants to do in a regular basis. To
discover life not just in the four corners of our room but also go outside and ‘experience’ it. Whatever it
was that many of us has learned that day will surely be unforgotten.
Dos and Don’ts When
Hiking/Trekking for Beginners
1) Never
ever talk while trekking a mountain. I don’t why I can’t shut my mouth up. I
guess I wasn’t tired because I trekked but because I talked too much while
trekking. It zapped all my energy so should maybe lessen your talking if you
want to last that much.
2) When
your adviser tells you to use jogging pants, long sleeves and rubber shoes, use
jogging pants, long sleeves and rubber shoes. Or you might end up getting a
scar like the one below this. That is nine inches scratch from a plant by the
way.
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| Nine inch scar I got from a plant. So don ever question your facilitators when they tell you to wear long sleeves. |
3) When
you already reached the peak, never ever drink cold water. I know, I learned it
the hard way. One minute I was fine and not too tired and the next my blood was
like leeched from me and I felt dizzy and I was 2 seconds away from collapsing.
Of course I didn’t collapse! That would be too embarrassing. Credits to the
cold water I drank as soon as I reached the summit. So no to cold water.
4) Do
not use sneakers when hiking. Remember that sneakers are for streets, streets
are asphalt and rough while the forest is like soil with fallen leaves. If you
get lucky and hiked a slippery mountain, well good luck not slipping and falling.
So better yet pull out those hiking boots.
5) Always
use DSLR camera not the camera you use for your selfies. Based on our
experienced we use a camera phone and we have images like these. Ugh. Not so
magazine worthy or even Facebook worthy. Plus you can distinguish
characteristics from this image.
6) Remember
to review your books on anything forest-related topics. There’s a 100% possibility
that lower years or those who are ‘not interested’ in reading anything about
‘biology’ stuffs will ask you. You don’t want to be caught off guard, won’t
you? And it will nice to share to have inputs on something someone do not know.
7) Always
bring a match. Okay, this one I got from Percy Jackson and The Olympians series
by Rick Riordan but it makes sense. What if some unexpected things happened.
You never know, the forest is a mysterious place that isn’t 100% studied.
8) Do
not bring unnecessary things with you. Bring only things that you know are
vital examples phones, camera, water, food (if it takes 2-3 days), clothing
especially sweater or jacket, a notebook for journal and notes. Other than that
leave your stuffs at home.
So if you want experience
trekking/hiking in Zamboanga you should try out Canucutan in Pasonanca,
Zamboanga City. Don’t forget to get a permit from DENR before going J HAVE FUN
JOYCE
